Infinity dress (AKA: 100 different way dress)

A few weeks ago we decided to hit the outlet malls and came across a little kiosk that was selling these 100 way dresses.  There were ladies standing there pulling people aside to have them try it on and as I was watching with my daughter, I was really drawn in by the way it looked!  Beautiful fabrics and very cute styles you could turn this dress into.  Anyway... my daughter starts begging me to buy one for her (yes, she's only 6 and it's already begun).  I started to look at the fabric and realize that it's the simplest little thing that I could probably make at home.  So I decide to forego the $80 that they were charging (can you believe it?!!!) and try to make it myself.

E and I went to the fabric store and I said she could pick any 2 fabrics for her dress.  This is what she picks..

Haha.. tell me these fabrics don't remind you of Blanche Deverou from Golden Girls?  I kept trying to convince her that there were other fabrics.. but nope.. she was smitten with these. :)  So I reluctantly agreed and took the fabric home (oh by the way cost less than $10).  So here's what I came up with.

It's basically a half circle with a waistband and two layers.. How simple is that!  Now it did take a bit of calculations to figure out the whole circumference of a circle divided by 6.(something or other) to find the radius, etc.. but other than a little math, it was a very easy project and didn't take long at all!

Here's a closeup of the binding.  Because there was a slight stretch to the fabric, I used a stretch stitch to bind the waistband to the main body.

My husbands first words in reaction to me was, "What is it?" haha. After I told him, he said, "Oh.. ok.. E is going to be so excited when she sees it!"  I almost want to wake up her to try it on, but I will be a good mom and let her sleep.  Until tomorrow baby... it will be like Christmas morning.

Edit: So I showed E the dress this morning and she went crazy over it.  I'm telling you mamas... if you can sew, you DEFINITELY have to make one of these for your little girls!  Here's a few pictures of the different ways you can wear it.

Strapless

The one shoulder

I don't know what to call this.. 

But here's the back of it.. maybe the criss cross?

The wrap

I have no more caption ideas, but you get the jist. :)

Basic Skirt

Different kind of skirt

She's such a ham.. haha. By the end she was getting tired of me taking pictures so I had to stop.  Anyway, hope you like it!  Go and make one now! :)

The Mad Hatter

Now speaking of old halloween costumes... I don't think I ever posted about the Mad Hatter costume A was dressed as in 2010.  E was Alice in Wonderland and A was the Mad Hatter.  Since there are only so many years that these kiddies will allow me to make them match, I had to take advantage before they started to have major opinions. :)

A was such a good sport!  He really loved the hat and the kids still play with it to this day!  Here are some of the spiffy pieces.

 Pants made from DANA which I have made a bajillion times now.  Vest was a makeshift from some measurements I took (notice the ghetto fabulous buttons... yes, that's permanent marker folks.. ).  Of course the hat that makes the outfit made with poster board, a hanger and some fabric.

My sweet Alice and her Mad Hatter friend.

The jacket was also a makeshift from some remnant fabric that I just pieced together.. The funny thing is that A never got to wear the pants out!  Right as we got to our Halloween party he spilled chocolate milk all over  himself! Luckily it was only on the pants and I had an extra pair in the car.. but they never fulfilled their lifelong dream of being worn out (pun intended). :)

An Angel, a Crayon and a Wiggle

Such a retroactive post, but I thought I'd start blogging again! :)  There are so many projects that I never posted about, that I thought I'd go back through some old crafts in the past year (possibly year-ssss).  Here are the kids on Halloween this past year.  Big E was an angel made from an old flower girl dress that was donated to us by my friend's mom's dry cleaners. haha.  Someone left an old flower girl dress that looked like it was from 20 years ago and so I made some sleeves from tulle, got a $1 halo from the dollar store and whipped up some wings using 2 hangers and some $1 pantyhose... gotta love the dollar store!

She was walking in a parade and decided to put on whiskers.. haha.  She's the creative one. :)  Now baby E was a makeshift crayon from a large bolt of orange felt that I had at home.  Don't ask why, but I had like 8 yards of orange felt for some reason so I just made a little bunting outfit for him with velcro on the back.  Too bad he stayed in it for about 10 seconds to take the picture then proceeded to cry until I took it off.  All that labor for 10 seconds.. worth it?  You decide. :)

You can also see A in his Murray Wiggle Costume.  Yes, that is Murray Wiggle.  We tried so hard to get him to be something else.. but that is ALL he wanted!  Lucily this was the easiest costume of all.  A little logo printed on printable inkjet paper and I appliqued it on and a little felt belt with the same logo.  The hubs stayed up to make a matching guitar for him and he was thrilled!

But he was NOT thrilled to take this picture at a pumpkin fest.  He had just about had it until he saw the balloon pit...

He refound his purpose in life..  :) Love that crazy boy with that crazy hair. :)

Terry Cloth Clothes

After having baby E, I can't imagine taking all three kids to the pool this summer.  The thought of undressing them all, washing the chlorine off, then drying and dressing them again is unsettling to me.  That's a lot of work!  So I thought what if I could at least cut out one step by just drying/dressing all at once without carrying multiple articles of clothing.  I think that would help a little right? :)  So here's what I came up with..

Terry Cloth Clothes! :)  Ignore the stained dress.. jajang myun explosion.

I bought 2 cheap terry cloth towels from walmart for $1.95 each.  Shirring the top, added elastic straps and voila!  She wouldn't take it off all day!  The idea came from Dana's Beach Towel Dress.

A's outfit is just a one piece jumper from a green terry cloth towel.  I put an existing shirt and pant on top of the towel, cut out a pattern and then bound the raw edges with some biased tape I had.  Of course for ease the straps are velcroed at the top. :)
Something about this outfit reminds me of the sound of music when she made clothes out of the curtains. haha

Dress Pants

Can't believe it's been several months since my last blog post.  If you didn't know, baby #3 came in the beginning of March, so you can understand my lack of posting.  Plus, I've been preoccupied with facebook to tell you the truth.  It seems that for stay at home moms (or maybe just me).. it's an outlet to the world.  It's comforting to know that people are living exciting lives out there and doing crazy things.  I can live vicariously through you. :)  But sadly people have not been posted as often and I do find that I'm craving a connection with people again.  SO POST SOMETHING for me! :)

Anyways.. I've been keeping busy by spending my maternity leave crafting, baking and surfing the web for new projects.  A friend of mind gave me a lot of khaki fabric a while back and I wasn't quite sure what I would do with it.  So I took a tutorial from Dana and made Auggie some khaki pants.  It turned out wonderfully!  Eddie asked if I was going to put in some pockets, but I'm too lazy.  Instead I'd rather make several of these!

Ignore the unironed fabric. :)

The hemline. 

The elastic back and double stitched waistline.  Ignore my mail. :) 

I tried to put in a label, but it's kind of ugly because I sewed over it.  It was too large. haha

So it was my first experience at pant making and I've gotta say it was pretty easy!  But it could be that it's a super small pair of pants. :)

How do I have time to craft- Hat project

So lately people have been asking me how I manage to do all these little projects while I'm pregnant with two kids.  Well, allow me to let you in on my little secret... it's called "coping mechanism".  There are two things that I do to cope with life.  1) Veg out and watch TV or 2) I find new projects to feed my perfectionism.  Yes, believe it or not, I am a perfectionist.. My house my be filthy, my kids unruly, but I am a perfectionist when it comes to having this inward drive to learn new things.  So if you find that I am making massive amounts of desserts or making new projects daily, I am coping with the fact that I cannot control my world around me.  With two kids you realize very quickly how little control you have.

I would like to say that every time I feel a loss of control, I turn to God to seek peace and ultimately relinquish my control issues to him.  But there's this itty bitty voice that wants to gain control of everything in my life.. to rule over everything.. essentially become my own God.  There is this still small voice that tells me to look at the cross of Christ and see why Christ had to do what he did so that I, my own inner God, can submit and know the only true and living God who really is the ONLY one in complete control.  Ok, this is getting too heavy... so what it boils down to is the battle of Christian living.  Not just dying to my own habits, and behavior modify.. but rather see the glorious cross and finding the grace that's freely given.  As character changes, behavior will follow.  

So for now, don't judge me when I show you my new creations. :)  I'm a work in progress. :)  OH.. and I don't craft daily either.. sometimes I do multiple projects on a Saturday and blog about them individual through the week.  hahah  With all that said, I'll end on a lighter note.  Here's a hat I made for the baby..

 It was supposed to be a strawberry hat (Cynthia, I went home and made it after I saw yours), but I didn't have green for the leaf, brown for the stem, etc.. so I just made an Acorn-like hat.  I think I don't like the leaf so I'm going to cut it off.. but then my sister asked me why the hat would have a stem at the end?  I don't know. :)

Then Elizabeth saw me making that hat and asked for one for herself.  She wanted a flower hat, so I made a cute skull cap with crocheted flowers.

 She asked me why it was so tight, and I told her that's how she's supposed to wear it.

Aren't they cute?

Eddie asked me why I don't make anything for Auggie. Sad right?  I guess I never think to make anything for him.  It's cute to make girl stuff and baby stuff, but boy stuff?? boring... well, I'm going to look forward to celebrate the boy month at MADE starting in February!  Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Maternity Shirt into Girl's Dress

My mom decided to give me this maternity dress because she thought it was "cute".  Have you ever wondered what qualifies as "cute" to an older Korean mother?  Well, I have often wondered this mystery myself because the moment I put on this tent-like shirt, Eddie busted out laughing for 10 minutes straight.  I would have taken a picture of myself in it if I were brave, but when I looked in the mirror, the only words that came to mind was sumo wrestler.

So trying to be resourceful I thought I'd try to "save" this shirt since the embroidery was pretty and so were the buttons.  I really wanted to make a pattern that I could use over and over and have very little to cut and sew. (Because I'm lazy).  So I drafted this pattern by using Elizabeth's measurements.

I made some adjustments to the seam allowance because I realized there wasn't much ease around the waist/armpit.  So this design was the back piece.. The arm would fold over so I essentially only had 2 seams. 1) across the diagonal line from neck-armpit. 2) Under the sleeve down to the bottom hem!

Cut out the pattern on some muslin to see if it was the right measurement.. this is before I cut from the sumo shirt.

Here is the sumo shirt.. when did people where this kind of maternity wear??  As you can see, I've already drawn out the front pattern piece.

Here's the finished product.  Not the best picture, but still the best girl. :)  Fits her perfectly!

Alice in Wonderland Kids Costume

Hello faithful readers.. yes, I have been out of my blogging mode for a while now.. but now that I have more energy (in the second trimester) I feel motivated to do a little more.. I posted this on my facebook already, but thought I'd try to keep my blog "relatively" up to date. :)

E has been wanting to be Alice in Wonderland for some time now.. I went to the store and found this cheap costume for $20-$25!  I was mortified at the cost of Halloween costumes!  The fabric alone probably cost the manufacturer 30 cents!  So I decided to try my hand at sewing my own.  I usually go buy a pattern, but I was too cheap to do it, so I reference this book that I have...

By the way, I LOVE this book!  It's very helpful if you're new to making patterns.

Anyway.. referenced the book and make E's costume from scratch!  I should have taken pictures of the process, but I was too lazy.  Next time. :)

Though it's unironed, I think it turned out pretty good!  Eddie thinks it looks like a waitress uniform though.. boo Eddie.  I'm thinking of selling the pattern for some money. hahha. 

The back

 The cutie in just the dress.. I'll take a picture with her full costume once it's ironed. :)

Next time.. the Mad Hatter..

My first T-shirt

I finally got around to making Auggie a shirt.  I've been making Elizabeth things for some time now, but it's so hard to think of something cute and creative for a boy.  Lately this whole "refashioning" idea has been all ove the sewing blogs I read... where you take old clothes to make it into new.  I wanted to try this 90 minute t-shirt idea from danamadeit.com.  I love her blog.  Such fantastic ideas!  So here it is, plain as it may be.

Here is the original shirt I used... I got it free with membership... though I'm not a member anymore. :)

Pieces all cut up.

Final product!

I added some yellow ribbing to the neckline to make it not so plain. :)

It's a perfect fit!

Look at my hanging cheeks. :)

The shirt looks funny here because his belly is so big. :)

I was surprised to see how well it turned out!  Next project.. a pettiskirt for kate!

Pink Dress

Here is one of the many projects I'm always working on.  It was actually very fast!  I used a pattern that I bought years ago but never got around to.  Here is the finished dress... my first completed clothes project. :)  There's supposed to  be ribbon around the waist and flounce but I got lazy...

Elizabeth's dress!

 

Back of the dress

With the bow tied

Inner lining

My first zipper

Crazy looking Elizabeth posing

She turned and said, "Take a picture of the back!"

Practicing her ballet

Twirling to show the fullness of the skirt

She's starting to look chubby..

Next project is Auggie's shirts.. hm.. we'll see if I can get that done before Joshua and Sammy's birthday party next weekend... so many crafts, so little time!